A chronologically sequenced descriptions of key moments from this weekend’s Arsenal match (away at Liverpool, Sunday August 31, 2025) seems to me a joyless exercise in futility, not so much because we lost away to our title rivals – it is well-known that losing the odd game or three has historically been proven inevitable even for the most swashbuckling winners of the English Premier League, with only one notable exception that remains an exception for a reason – in a match lacking key moments or any great degree of quality, but mostly due to the fact that the patient readers of this blog must all have either seen the match live at the stadium or at their home, or have seen the recorded version, or at least the highlights, and I confess that I cannot think of any novel enough approach to represent the temporal unfolding of (non)events that in any shape or form can even complement those visual experiences, let alone enrich them.
Instead, I choose to express my opinion about this match. Not just the match itself, but the narrative about it, and what it means for Arsenal’s season, and our transfer window expenditure, and then all the meta-narratives about those narratives. And the meta-narratives about those meta-narratives, turning it back on a self-referential loop of incessant back-and-forth, back-and-forth, forever and forever…
I kid. I won’t do any such things. One, I don’t have the time. Two, I am not a media expert paid to generate a torrent of content. I will try to keep this short, present some opinions and theories that though they won’t quite meet Popper’s falsifiability requirements for being scientific, would aim to be data-driven whenever possible.
Let me start with a sequence of results: D 2-2; W 1-0; D 1-1; W 5-1; W 2-1; W 2-0; D 1-1; D 2-2; D 2-2; W 1-0; W 3-1; L 1-4; D 2-2; L 1-3; W 3-2; W 2-0; W 1-0; W 3-2; W 3-1; L 1-3 .
These are Arsenal’s PL results across 24-25 and 23-24 seasons, reverse chronologically ordered, against the other five clubs of the “traditional” top six.
24-25: W5 D5, total points= 20/25. 23-24: W6 D1 L3, total points = 19/25.
I distinctly remember a time in the near past when despite playing superb football – albeit not consistently enough – against other “big” clubs (I think that distinction is not as pronounced nowadays as it used to be, especially in terms of the potential outcome of any given match) this same table would look despairing worse from Arsenal’s perspectives. And there used to be such almighty clamour about various myriad real or perceived limitations.
If anyone is trying to suggest that those days were better, given that once in a while we would come back with a thrilling victory in a goal-fest in games that would have such a uniquely intense and cathartic feel to them that consistently recapturing those one-off exercises in instinctive excellence would prove a task just psychologically challenging, they do not have Arsenal’s best interests in mind. And I am sure that the real Arsenal fans are not falling for that.
Now, looking at that fixture once the PL calendar was released, my predicted starting line-up would have had Saka playing the right-sided attacking role, Ødegaard orchestrating his unique interpretation of the right-sided number 8 (I myself, for my selfish aesthetic reasons want to see him playing a more typical creative 10, at least sometimes, and maybe with Zubimendi as the fulcrum that is a direction that this team can also evolve towards, at least as an option, but all that for another time), Kai Havertz playing his false 9, dropping back and linking up, rather than Viktor Gyökeres (I think he will turn out to be a very important player for us, especially in the kind of matches where his unique skillset and relentlessness would be differentiating, but that too is for another time), and under no circumstances would William Saliba not be playing for less than 5 minutes.
We started this match without the first three, and lost Wilo in the fourth minute or so. If we were to do a thought experiment, and imagine the inverse, I don’t think our opponents would have had a chance to survive what would have come their way. Anfield factor or not.
Despite all the injury related absences we didn’t panic, we mostly played the game we went to play (it is a different matter that some fans do not like that plan, more about that later here), and even when they were inevitably on a bit of ascendancy in front of their bloodthirsty home crowd, the composure and discipline were noticeable. Our defence was never really breached – there was a goal ruled out correctly for a very clear offside, and a few long distance attempts – except for that one moment of true excellence (I think it is admissible if a Liverpool supporter were to call it a moment of genius) that decided the result.
Could our wall have done better for the free-kick? Unlikely given the extraordinary dip in the delivery. Could David Raya have done better? Somewhat iffy though he has been, especially with his passing since the season started (there was another hair-raising example today when he passed straight to an onrushing Van Dijk), I don’t think Raya can be faulted for failing to palm the ball away given how precisely in the top corner the ball arrived. It really was an unstoppable free-kick, resembling more the kind of exaggerated trajectories favoured and liberally used by football cartoonists and less actual free-kicks we see from even the best in the business.
Other than the goal conceded to a singularly unique free-kick, the fact that our defence was mostly unruffled was not accidental, or not because Liverpool’s expensively assembled (I know, I know) and talent-rich front four all decided to have a bad day. It was because Arsenal, as a team, are great at defending. Great at defending with great individual defenders, and a nuanced and well-drilled understanding of how to manage transitions and defend spaces.
Mo Salah had his first and only shot of the game in the 73rd minute, a 0.04 xG attempt cleared by Calafiori. Ekitiké had only one attempted shot at goal and one solitary touch in the Arsenal penalty area before being replaced in the 80th minute by Chiesa.
Mosquera, deputising for Saliba, exuded calm in possession, demonstrated speed of thought, first-rate anticipation, and clean tackling abilities, moving with graceful simplicity both with and without the ball. He is not quite Wiliam Saliba, but he is an excellent player to call upon whenever needed, and even when not needed just to give Wilo and/or big Gabriel some rest.
Calafiori, from a defensive perspective, had his best game for us, keeping Mo Salah quiet for almost the entirety of the match. Aided by the selfless work-rate and discipline of the ever diligent Gabriel Martinelli. His first choice starting position is likely to be taken over by Eze or Madueke in the very near future, but I refuse to give up on him and I am not as convinced as many that he has personally stalled. His performance going forward today didn’t substantiate my faith in him, but his defensive contribution was excellent.
Martin Zubimendi, until he got tired in the second half, in tandem with Declan Rice, patrolled the midfield and controlled the tempo, mixing quick feet, even quicker match reading, and a physical intensity in challenges that underline why Arsenal have prioritized his signing for more than a year now. Even when we lost the initiative in the second half – after controlling the game, in possession and tempo in the first half – his ability to anticipate passes and movements were key in maintaining our defensive discipline.
This cannot be the entirety of the picture, I hear some say, especially given that Liverpool did actually win the match. And if we played well defensively, their defence must have performed even better, which was unlikely coming into the match given they have conceded goals against lesser teams and looked susceptible against quality attacks. Ergo, the Arsenal attack has underperformed. Isn’t that so?
A single word answer to that question is ‘yes’, we didn’t create a lot of meaningful goalscoring opportunities or trouble their goalkeeper too much. And like all Arsenal fans who grew up in the Wenger era, expansive football, to this scribe also the caginess sometimes feels, intuitively and while watching the match, more of a limitation that can be improved rather than a deliberate tactical choice to improve the chance of winning a particular type of match, say Liverpool away at Anfield.
However, the overall match statistics clarify that while that desire for that famous “handbrake off” (Wengerism) approach burnt into the neural hardware of our football watching brains would always remain so, the current approach of Arteta and his team has some foundational strengths to it.
Possession: Liverpool 53% Arsenal 47%
xG: Liverpool 0.45 Arsenal 0.55
Shots: Liverpool 9 Arsenal 11
Shots on target: Liverpool 3 Arsenal 1
Corners: Liverpool 3 Arsenal 8
So, even though we played a tactically attritional and defence-first football – and I suspect that even in the presence of Saka and Ødegaard our tactical approach would not have been too different – and Liverpool didn’t do so (naturally, they never play defensive or result-oriented football, they always entertain, and go into every match trying to win by three goals or more, their players don’t waste time and do not try to hang onto an 1-0 result, of course not, etc.), the statistical differences are marginal, including some in our favour. We had earned eight corners, and a majority of them from the side where Saka or Ødegaard would have delivered in-swingers, the kind from which, say, a Gabriel or Timber or Calafiori are more dangerous, compared to the out-swingers that Rice took.
A few things we could have and should have done better in terms of our offensive play: try to release Madueke more often down our right side, especially as a counter attacking option; try to support Gyökeres by threading more balls onto his path as he ran the channels relentlessly throughout the match, or by delivering crosses and cut-backs; bring on Eze a bit earlier to allow him to create some chances; and maybe (this would be contentious, and I myself am not entirely sure) start Nwaneri ahead of Merino in the right-side eight role. Zubimendi-Rice-Merino lacked incisive final-third passing, and there is only so much the ball carrying abilities of Rice can achieve to compensate for that.
Madueke was our most threatening forward player, he was purposeful, direct and came the closest to creating a telling moment in the opposition box. I was encouraged by what I saw from Gyökeres in terms of movements and positioning, he kept the central defenders focused on him, and helped to get Madueke in a few one-on-one positions. Both of them need some time on the practice ground to build mutual understanding with the rest of the team. Eze looked exactly like the player we know he is, and while I think the timing of his substitution made logical sense, ten odd extra minutes from him may also have made a difference.
Our results against Liverpool since the 2022-23 season have demonstrated two teams matching up to each other with always a small margin deciding the match in those cases the matches didn’t end up in draw: (h) 3-2, (a) 2-2, (a) 1-1, (h) 3-1, (h) 2-2, (a) 2-2, (a) 0-1.
We have had a mini undefeated run going on against Liverpool. When two teams are so closely matched, that kind of run doesn’t last for too long, as, sooner or later, a very fine marginal difference is all that it takes. This was one such occasion. The match unveiled no big new secrets, didn’t define either team’s seasons, and didn’t create any unsurmountable gaps.
However, it did affirm an essential and positive development for Arsenal, the kind of development that was much needed – we now have a deeper and more balanced squad that can much better withstand injuries to key players, the kind of injuries we suffered so much from last season.
Here is to an injury free international break, quick return of Saka, Wilo and Kai after that, and the continuous evolution and growth of the Arsenal team as it peaks in the second half of the season.
